Wheeling, W. Va. - On Wednesday, the Wheeling University Women's Swimming team was in their home pool for the first time during the 2024-2025 season. They battled Washington & Jefferson and Salem in tri-meet action, sweeping the event to move to 3-1 overall on the season. They were able to defeat Washington & Jefferson 119-64 and followed it up with a 120-63 win over Salem to round out the day.
Coming off the Mountain East Conference (MEC) Female Swimmer of the Week award last week, senior
Jade Miller led the way as she continued her strong start. She picked up three first place finishes on the day, giving her a total of five in the past two meets. Her first win of the day came in what has been her main event, the 100-Yard Backstroke, where she swam a time of 1:02.65. She would beat the field by three seconds in the race and got off to a strong start. She came back later in the 400-Yard Individual Relay, where she got her second win of the day with a time of 4:58.10. After swimming the 200-Yard IM earlier in the season, Miller increased her distance and got her biggest win of the day, beating the field by nine seconds.
In total, the Cardinals would take home top honors in six of the nine individual events on the day, with six different Cardinals taking home the titles. The first win of the day came in the 200-Yard Freestyle, where
Lydie Sprecher took top marks with a time of 2:07.39. It was the first of two PRs on the day for Sprecher, who would also take home 2nd in the 100 Fly at 1:03.09. In the 50-Yard Freestyle,
Ana Noguera Munoz would earn her first win of the season, swimming a time of 26.28 to beat Salem's Cheyanne Rohde by .10 of a second.
Gabby Baiano was the next Cardinal winner, taking top marks in the 100 Fly with a time of 1:03.03, and Sophia Gonzalez Bernal would pick up her first collegiate win in the final individual event, when she swam the 100-Yard Breaststroke in 1:15.20.
The other two top finishes for the Cardinals came in the two relay events as the team took on some of the longer distance relays. Up first was the Women's 400-Yard Medley Relay where Miller, Gonzalez Bernal, Sprecher, and
Sofia Castillo competed as the Cardinal's A Team. The team would take home top honors with a time of 4:19.11, beating Salem's team by six seconds. The 800-Yard Freestyle Relay would wrap things up for the Cardinals, with Baiano, Castillo, Gonzalez Bernal, and Sprecher competing. They would take the event with a time of 8:40.32 in what was the biggest win of the day as they beat the field by just under a minute.
The only three events that the Cardinals did not win were the 1650 Freestyle, the 100-Yard Freestyle, and the 500-Yard Freestyle. Noguera Munoz would take second for the Cardinals in the 100-Yard Freestyle (3:42.60) and
Chelsea McIntosh took second in the 500-Yard Freestyle (6:39.42) to round out the Cardinal's day.
The Wheeling University Women's Swimming team returns to the pool on Saturday, October 19th, when they host Malone with first swims at 1 PM.
